NK says 'no intention' to review Hyundai Group chief's bid to visit Mount Geumgang

This file photo, provided by Hyundai Group on Aug. 3, 2018, shows group chief Hyun Jeong-eun, company officials and North Korean officials attending a memorial service for former company Chairman Chung Mong-hun at Mount Kumgang in North Korea. Yonhap

• Published Jul 1, 2023 9:14 AM KST
• Updated Jul 2, 2023 7:29 PM KST

North Korea said Saturday it has "no intention" to review a bid by the chief of South Korea's Hyundai Group to visit the North's Mount Geumgang next month to hold a memorial service for her late husband and former chairman of the group.

Kim Song-il, a director general of the North's foreign ministry, said North Korea has a policy of not permitting the entry of South Korean nationals onto its territory, according to the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).

"We make it clear that we have neither been informed about any South Korean personage's willingness for visit nor known about it and that we have no intention to examine it," Kim was quoted as saying by the KCNA.

Hyun Jeong-eun, chairwoman of Hyundai Group, which had run sightseeing programs at the North Korean mountain, is seeking to visit the North in August to mark the 20th anniversary of the death of her husband Chung Mong-hun.

Officials at Hyundai Group submitted a related document to Seoul's unification ministry this week to seek contact with officials at the North's Korea Asia-Pacific Peace Committee.

Kim at the North's foreign ministry made it clear that Mount Geumgang is part of the North's territory and the committee has no any authority over entry into North Korea.

"Such principle and policy are unchangeable and will be maintained in the future, too," he added.

The North's swift response came amid expectations that it would not allow Hyun's visit as it has strictly closed its border due to the COVID-19 pandemic and has raised tensions on the Korean Peninsula with weapons tests.

The unification ministry expressed deep regret over the North's "unilateral refusal though the planned visit was just meant to hold a memorial service."

The request by Hyundai has been reviewed by relevant ministries, and the government will handle the case in consideration of Pyongyang's announcement, the ministry said, indicating the possibility of it to be turned down.

Since March last year, the North has been dismantling major facilities at a resort on the mountain in accordance with its leader Kim Jong-un's 2019 order to tear down all "unpleasant-looking" facilities built by the South.

Launched in 1998, the Mount Geumgang tour project was once regarded as a symbol of inter-Korean reconciliation. But Seoul suspended the program in July 2008 after a South Korean woman was killed by a North Korean soldier at the resort. (Yonhap)